12 DECEMBER 1941, Page 14

TREASURY METHODS SIR,—Under the heading "A Spectator's Notebook" you drew

atten- tion in your issue of November 21st to the mysterious ways of the Treasury. I can contribute another example from my own experience. Obedient to the law I surrendered two of my Canadian securities to my bank to be sold in Canada. They were sold in Montreal at about half the price I had paid for them. I have no objection to this; it is no more than the fortune of war. What I did object to was having to pay 1;22 for the transaction. When I got the equivalent in sterling of what the securities sold for in Montreal, roughly k5o0, I found that this amount had been deducted from the proceeds of the sale. I was made to pay in hard cash for the privilege of making a con-